EIR Daily Alert Service
|
WEDNESDAY, MARCH 15, 2017 Volume 4, Number 52 EIR Daily Alert Service P.O. Box 17390, Washington, DC 20041-0390
EDITORIALGrounds for Confidence; Enjoy the Bandwagon!March 14 (EIRNS)—Cueing off the chatter-of-the-hour and issue-ism from the mainstream media and most elected officials, you see only confusion and impossibility, or worse. But, step back. When you look at the big picture, in the proper time frame, you see how there are grounds for confidence. The United States can be broken free from its subjection to the policies of the neo-British Empire system, of monetarism, warfare, and anti-science guff, which has held down the world for decades. Look at where we stand on two action measures, identified by the LaRouche Movement and collaborators, as critical for putting the U.S. into a new paradigm, and moving the world ahead. First, Glass-Steagall, as the gateway for the LaRouche “Four Laws” mode for political economy; and secondly, getting the U.S. to join the “win-win” mode of the New Silk Road for the world. Both prospects are live, and on the agenda to be actualized. This week, the discussion about Glass-Steagall, raised in Washington, D.C., Monday, by Thomas Hoenig, Vice Chairman of the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, commanded trans-Atlantic general attention, and created alarm on Wall Street and the City of London. This is reflected in the coverage, from Germany’s Die Welt to the Financial Times of London. Meantime, critical numbers of lawmakers in state capitals, and others, are demanding that Congress shape up and act on Glass-Steagall. On the potential for the U.S. to align with the New Silk Road approach, the prospect for a meeting in April between President Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping, holds great promise for a new course of relations. This coming weekend, Trump’s Secretary of State will be in China for advance discussions. True, we don’t “control” what exactly Trump or his associates will do. But the international dynamic is favorable, and conducive to a United States breakout. We are now 60 days from the May 14-15 event in China, the “Belt and Road Forum for International Cooperation” (www.brfmc.org/en). Look back on what led up to this situation, just over the past six months. In September, there was a confluence of conferences, putting forward the perspective of common-interest development: Vladivostok (Eastern Economic Forum), Hangzhou (Group of 20), Vientiane (ASEAN/East Asia Summit), and the UN General Assembly, for which China presented its Belt and Road Initiative for a “common future” of growth, finally ending poverty. Then in October, the Goa, India, gathering for the BRICS annual summit. In November in Peru, the APEC Summit. In the midst of which came the November U.S. elections, voting out the Bush/Obama/Hillary/London crowd. Now more and more countries are lining up on the pathway to the new paradigm for development. In Chile today, convened the “High-Level Dialogue on Asia-Pacific Integration Initiatives.” Following President Trump’s dumping of the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP), to which Chile was a signer, the Chilean government organized this two-day summit, to discuss possible options for Asia-Pacific integration, but with China now participating. U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson sent a message to Chile’s Foreign Minister Heraldo Muñoz last week, congratulating him on taking this initiative. In attendance will be ministers from the 12 TPP signer countries, plus China, South Korea, and Colombia. The U.S. Ambassador to Chile will participate. Chile’s President Michelle Bachelet will be attending the May Belt and Road Forum in China. Take an even longer view than the last half year, and the grounds for optimism are even greater. Recall that in December 2014, when EIR issued its Special Report, “The New Silk Road Becomes the World Land-Bridge,” many—including in China!—did not comprehend the world-transforming process involved, and thought the whole idea strange. Same with the reaction earlier that year, to the “Four Laws” issued by Lyndon LaRouche, specifying what must be done to create a productive economy. Now, to millions, these ideas are becoming self-evident. They are fighting issues. We’re rolling! Enjoy the bandwagon. U.S. POLITICAL AND ECONOMICObama Used British Empire’s GCHQ To Spy on TrumpMarch 14 (EIRNS)—Fox News commentator Judge Andrew Napolitano said today that three senior U.S. intelligence officials have told him that Obama used British intelligence’s Government Communications Headquarters, or GCHQ, to spy on Donald Trump when he was a candidate and when he was President-elect. “Three intelligence sources have informed Fox News that President Obama went outside the chain of command. He didn’t use the NSA, he didn’t use the CIA, he didn’t use the FBI, he didn’t use the Department of Justice.” Instead he used GCHQ. “There are no American fingerprints on this. What happened to the guy who ordered this? Resigned three days after Donald Trump was inaugurated,” Fox quoted Napolitano as saying. Meanwhile, the back-and-forth with Congress and the media about what Trump meant, what evidence exists, and when it will be provided Congress, etc., is but a distraction. Napolitano’s assertion of the involvement of GCHQ makes sense in light of the British role going back to the initial allegations of Russian hacking Clinton’s emails, the report from MI6 agent Chris Steele, etc. Hoenig Bank Separation Proposal Gets Widely CoveredMarch 14 (EIRNS)—FDIC Vice-Chairman Thomas Hoenig’s bank separation proposal has been covered widely in the international press. In most cases, the coverage links Hoenig’s proposal to President Trump and to Sean Spicer’s March 9 reiteration that the President remains committed to Glass-Steagall. Bloomberg reports, “President Donald Trump has worried Wall Street by promising to bring back a Depression-era law that separated investment banking from consumer lending, but he hasn’t offered details on what his modern version might look like. Now a key regulator may be filling the void.” The Bloomberg article goes on to point out that Trump supported Glass-Steagall as a candidate, and that White House Press Secretary Spicer reconfirmed that support last week. Hoenig’s statement was also picked up by Die Welt and the Financial Times, both of which emphasize that Wall Street won’t like it. The City of London’s FT spun out its various lines to dismiss any thought of Glass-Steagall: “The proposal is likely to spark alarm on Wall Street, where the likes of JPMorgan Chase, Bank of America, and Citigroup have argued that break-ups of big banking groups would be arduous and unnecessary. Lobbyists for the banks note that the institutions that fared the worst during the last crisis were monoline commercial banks such as Countrywide and Washington Mutual, and monoline investment banks like Bear Stearns and Lehman Brothers.” The FT further spins its tired line, that bank lobbyists now assure everyone that, since the last crisis, there is today close Federal Reserve supervision of both merged commercial and investment banks, and of stand-alone banks. One arrogant, but wishful note keeps being sounded by Wall Street banksters these days: that Congress won’t be taking up regulation reform anyway, but tending to other priorities. New Accusation against Tillerson Charges Exxon Suppressed ‘Global Warming’ GospelMarch 14 (EIRNS)—New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman, who openly established what he called a “war room” to “get Trump,” this Winter—has lobbed a new charge against Trump’s Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, in an ongoing investigation and court suit against ExxonMobil, which Schneiderman is leading. The general charge against ExxonMobil, the company Tillerson formerly headed, is that the firm withheld information from shareholders and the public about the reality of global warming. The specific charge against Tillerson is that he used an alias email—“Wayne Tracker”—from 2008 through 2015, to discuss climate matters, and that Exxon did not turn over these communications after a demand by Schneiderman. Schneiderman sent his charge to a New York judge in a letter yesterday. Schneiderman and the Attorney General Maura Healey of Massachusetts initiated the ExxonMobil suit. There are other such actions, against Peabody Energy, for instance, causing financial havoc and economic disruption. Peabody, the nation’s largest coal company, declared Chapter 11 bankruptcy last year under a legal barrage, the Obama “green” campaign, and the general economic collapse. The specific British factor, is that Empire networks, including Charles, Prince of Wales moved to instigate such suits. At a recent Commonwealth meeting, Prince Charles announced a new international clearinghouse to help conduct such court actions against companies, for denying man-caused climate change. George Soros himself is compensating Schneiderman. According to the Daily Caller last Fall, Soros and his family have donated $251,000 to Schneiderman’s political campaigns since 2006. Soros gave $64,500, and the rest came from his family. In addition, the green Global Witness group, which is largely funded by Soros, has Tillerson in its cross-hairs. In December, the head of Global Witness’s U.S. office, Corinna Gilfillan, briefed reporters on why Tillerson “shouldn’t become our top diplomat or global representative on climate change.” This was all spelled out by NewsMax reporter John Gizzi at the time. The “Get Trump” color-revolution media are now having a field day over Tillerson’s “alias email.” Meantime, Rep. Lamar Smith (R-TX), Chairman of the House Committee on Science, Space, and Technology, had previously subpoenaed Schneiderman and Healey to provide information on what green groups they are coordinating with, and to answer for how they are arrogating Federal powers over national commerce. Smith says the investigations are in “bad faith.” 9/11 Widow Kristen Breitweiser Warns Trump ‘Beware Saudi Snake Oil That Fuels Terror’March 14 (EIRNS)—The open letter from Kristen Breitweiser, 9/11 widow and activist for justice, to President Donald Trump was posted today on the Huffington Post blog where she is a contributor, under the title, “President Trump: Beware of Saudi Snake Oil That Fuels Terror.” On March 16, Trump is to meet Saudi Deputy Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, and Breitweiser cautions that he “will not be forthright with you about his Kingdom’s role in the 9/11 attacks and global terrorism.” She warns, “Indeed, many in the Kingdom refuse to tell the truth about their continued, long-standing, and well-documented clandestine, logistical, and financial support of radical Islamist terrorist groups that target and kill innocent Americans.” Her letter then quotes seven different parts, with citations, of the formerly classified “28 pages” of the 2002 Joint Congressional Inquiry into 9/11, which the Obama administration was finally forced to release July 15, 2016, under massive popular pressure. In addition, Breitweiser brings up the blatant Saudi lobbying operations in Washington, against 9/11 families and victims’ efforts to hold them to account in U.S. courts: “Unsurprisingly, the Saudis continue to wage war against the 9/11 families and JASTA [Justice Against Sponsors of Terrorism Act] by paying millions to their 14 powerful, insider Washington, D.C. lobbying firms, like the Podesta Group, to repeal JASTA and rob us of our day in court.” NEW WORLD ECONOMIC ORDERChilean Convenes Summit on Future of Asia Pacific Integration—Post TPPMarch 14 (EIRNS)—The two-day summit convened by Chile begins today in Vina del Mar, under the title “High-Level Dialogue on Asia-Pacific Integration Initiatives.” Following U.S. President Donald Trump’s dumping of Obama’s Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP), to which Chile was a signer, the Chilean government organized the summit, to discuss possible options for Asia-Pacific integration. Obama’s so-called “pivot to Asia” was intended to create a ring around China, militarily, and economically through the Trans-Pacific Partnership, a trade deal with Asia Pacific nations that excluded China. China is Chile’s most important trading partner, and President Michelle Bachelet will be attending the May 14-15 summit in China on the “Belt and Road Forum for International Cooperation.” Attending today’s summit are Trade and Foreign Ministers from the 12 TPP signer countries, plus China, South Korea, and Colombia. China’s delegation will be led by Yin Hengmin, a representative of the Chinese Executive for Latin American Affairs. Although the U.S. will be represented only by its current Ambassador in Chile, Carol Perez, Secretary of State Rex Tillerson sent a message to Chile’s Foreign Minister Heraldo Muñoz last week, congratulating him on taking this initiative. In her press conference today, China’s Foreign Ministry spokesperson, Hua Chunying, cautioned that the purpose of the Chilean summit isn’t to debate the failed TPP, as some media have reported, but rather “to discuss Asia-Pacific integration.” Xinhua pointedly commented today that rather than promoting free trade, TPP had always been intended as only a vehicle for “containing China.” Heraldo Muñoz told the daily El Mercurio that Chile is willing to work with any partner seeking “to open up commercially, bilaterally or multilaterally … if that’s China today, so be it; hopefully the United States also … we have to be realistic and flexible … this is not a zero sum [game].” Among options available to Chile, he said, are the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) and the Free Trade Area of the Asia-Pacific (FTAAP), both promoted by China. China Building Up Murmansk Port: A Northern Route through ArcticMarch 14 (EIRNS)—China is investing $300 million to build up the port in Murmansk, the city on the Arctic at the far northwestern corner of Russia. China’s Poly Group Corp., according to Global Times today, aims at facilitating greater use of the Northern Sea Route (NSR) from Northern Europe to East Asia via the Arctic. The first commercial ship from China to Europe through the Arctic in 2015 “sailed nearly 20,000 nautical miles during the 55-day voyage,” according to Xinhua, thereby avoiding the choke point at the Malacca Strait, and saving a great deal of time. Global Times states, “The NSR has the potential to become a significant new area for cooperation between China and Russia. It is expected that the Belt and Road initiative will create an opportunity for Russia’s NSR ambitions to turn into reality.” Malaysia, Indonesia, Philippines Launch Joint Anti-Terror PatrolsMarch 14 (EIRNS)—Malaysia, Indonesia, and the Philippines, three countries with similar ethnic populations and similar languages, which once considered merging to create a “Maphilindo,” have launched joint maritime and air patrols in the Sulu Sea (southeast of the South China Sea on the Philippine coast) to create anti-terror and anti-kidnapping patrols. Channel News Asia today printed an interview with Malaysia’s Navy chief, Adm. Ahmad Kamarulzaman, who said the cooperation reflects the level of trust and confidence among the three nations. “We first discussed it a year ago, and now we are looking at launching our first joint operation from Sandakan sometime next month,” said Admiral Ahmad. “The three navies of Malaysia, Indonesia and Philippines will be working together.” The coming to power of the Duterte government in the Philippines facilitated this development. It is modelled after the current multilateral patrols in the Strait of Malacca that have successfully lowered the number of piracy cases reported to “almost zero,” the Navy chief said. Global Times Blasts Obama over TPP, PivotMarch 14 (EIRNS)—While China is attending the meeting of the TPP countries in Chile today (with only the U.S. Ambassador to Chile present, not a U.S. delegation), Xinhua’s Chen Shilei makes the point that this is neither China trying to “take over what the United States has aborted, and save the TPP from bankruptcy,” nor to “fill the geopolitical vacuum left over by the United States and to contend for spheres of influence.” Such talk, he writes, misrepresents China’s intention. “China always upholds the spirit of free trade that embraces openness, inclusiveness, and mutual benefits,” he says, but, “It happens that the TPP is short of these features. Boosting free trade in the Asia-Pacific has never been part of the DNA of the TPP, which had become a self-serving trade deal in the reign of the Obama administration. The moment when the Obama administration decided to exclude China … from such a gigantic trade agreement has revealed that then-U.S. President Barack Obama cared little about boosting free trade through the TPP.” He concludes: “What China is interested in is just to work with other countries in the region and the wider world to paddle the slow global economic growth faster. In that endeavor, the world will find China a trustworthy partner.” STRATEGIC WAR DANGERChina: U.S.-South Korea War Exercises Push North Korea To Keep Nuclear Weapons ProgramMarch 14 (EIRNS)—Global Times, the Chinese Communist newspaper, in an unsigned editorial today, condemns both the North Korean nuclear weapon development program and the ongoing U.S.-South Korean military exercises, which are explicitly testing means for a preemptive strike on North Korea. “ ‘To decapitate the North Korean leadership,’ and to punish ‘the South’s imperialist running dogs, with nuclear weapons,’ are both the craziest threat Pyongyang and Seoul have sent to each other. They are equally hysterical, expressing both sides’ viciousness to destroy the other,” the editorial states. But it points to the stupidity of the U.S. policy: “How can Pyongyang remain indifferent facing a military exercise that includes more than 300,000 military personnel to carry out missions targeting its war command and top leader?… They intend to scare Pyongyang, but the actual effect is the opposite. Instead, Pyongyang believes that nuclear weapons are the reason why Washington and Seoul dare not put their plan of subverting the North’s regime into practice.” The daily also points to the increased threat to China from the massive U.S. military deployments: “Through joint drills, more and more U.S. strategic weapons are deployed on the Peninsula, posing a greater potential threat to China…. [I]t disregards China’s security concern; it may even feel schadenfreude [joy in another’s misery]. To the Chinese people, the South Korean government has lost its rationality on the security issue. The U.S. is here to stir up more trouble in Northeast Asia. By hitching itself to the U.S. chariot, South Korea naively thinks it shares a common destiny with the U.S. However, if war breaks out, the battlefield is bound to be the Korean Peninsula, while the U.S. is on the other side of the Pacific Ocean. South Korea and North Korea are the two who really share a common destiny.” The “Key Resolve” and “Foal Eagle 2017” annual U.S.-South Korea exercises are the largest ever this year, including practice invasions of North Korea. The U.S. Special Mission Units responsible for the killing of Osama bin Laden in 2011, including SEAL Team Six, are included in the exercise. Other hardware: the USS Carl Vinson aircraft carrier and its strike group of two guided-missile destroyers and a guided-missile cruiser; F-35B stealth fighters from Japan to the Korean Peninsula for the first time; nuclear-capable strategic bombers, Gray Eagle drones, equipped with Hellfire missiles, which will remain in South Korea for the first time; and of course the THAAD missiles. Japan has also joined with the U.S. and South Korea in an anti-missile exercise off the North Korean coast beginning today. Third Round of Astana Talks on Syria UnderwayMarch 14 (EIRNS)—Today in Astana, Kazakhstan, the third round of talks got underway, on the questions of ceasefire and working toward resolution of the crisis in Syria, convened with representatives of Russia, Turkey, and Iran, and the Syrian government. Also present were representatives of Jordan, and the U.S. Ambassador to Kazakhstan, George Kroll. However, the Syrian opposition delegation pulled out at relatively the last minute, claiming their demands were not being addressed, citing releasing prisoners, and ceasefire among others. Nevertheless, the talks went on. At a press conference in Moscow, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov described the opposition’s withdrawal as “unexpected,” and their reasons, “unconvincing,” but confirmed that the process should continue. The next possible date for United Nations talks on Syria to resume in Geneva is March 23. COLLAPSING WESTERN FINANCIAL SYSTEMBrussels to Italy: Make the Cuts or ‘Give the Money Back’March 14 (EIRNS)—According to the daily La Repubblica, the EU Economic and Financial Committee (composed of the EU Commission, governments, and the ECB) will demand that Italy pay back money from the “flexibility” margin allowed last year to the budget, unless the Italian government implements the additional €3.4 billion in cuts demanded to keep the deficit “under control.” The Committee insists that, not only is the deficit too high (2.4% of GDP!) but the Italian government has not fulfilled some conditions for the “flexibility” concessions, and should therefore give an additional €3.4 billion back. However, if the Italian government implements the demanded cuts by the April deadline, the Committee will turn a blind eye and display its immense clemency, by dropping the demands for restitution. It is rumored that the government will back down and increase the value added tax, or VAT. Italy is a net payer into the EU budget. It pays €8 billion yearly more than it receives from the EU. Nevertheless, it is being humiliated into requesting permission to use its own money. SCIENCE & INFRASTRUCTURENorway To Build Ship Tunnel—a World FirstMarch 14 (EIRNS)—Norway plans to build a ship tunnel to avoid the deadly Stadhavet Sea, according to today’s Global Construction Review. This would be the world’s first full-scale ship tunnel. Ships will travel through a mountain to avoid these treacherous waters, it reports. The tunnel will traverse 1.7km at the source of the Stad Peninsula in northern Norway, where the North Sea and Norwegian Sea meet. Some 33 people have died since 1945 making that trip. The tunnel will be 26.5m wide and be able to accommodate 70 to 120 ships a day, costing $272 million, with construction planned to start in 2019. OTHERChina Launches Translation of Confucius into Five LanguagesMarch 14 (EIRNS)—Schiller Institute President Helga Zepp-LaRouche has often argued, that to create the new paradigm of cooperation among nations, people should study, and thus come to love, the best of other cultures and history. Yesterday Xinhua reported that China is “Spreading the Word of Confucius” all along the Belt and Road Initiative project. It has been launched a project to publish translations of Confucius’ The Analects into five more languages this year: Arabic, Mongolian, Czech, Portuguese, and Spanish. The Analects—which Xinhua describes as a collection of Confucius’ ”renowned sayings, reflecting his political views, moral principles and educational ideas, such as ‘How happy we are to have friends from afar’ and ‘Do not do to others what you don’t want to be done to you.’ ” Wang Daqian, president of the China Confucius Foundation, told Xinhua that “the translations will be distributed to countries along the Belt and Road through the foundation and global Confucius Institutes…. The thoughts of Confucius (551-479 B.C.) constitute the root of Chinese traditional culture and have profoundly influenced Chinese society over the past 2,500 years.” |
|
